Sigurjón Þ. Árnason, former CEO of Landsbanki, was sentenced to 12 months in prison by Reykjavík District Court earlier this morning for market manipulation between November 1, 2007 and October 3, 2008.

Nine months of the sentence are suspended for two years, visir.is reports. The period which Sigurjón was held in police custody will be deducted from his sentence.

A fourth former employee of the bank, Sindri Sveinsson, was acquitted of the Special Prosecutor’s charges. Half of Sigurjón’s legal fees will be paid by the State Treasury and the full amount of Ívar’s fees. The defendants were not present during this morning’s sentencing.

The case is one of the largest in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse in Iceland.

Constitutional Republic

True Federalism.

“The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent to.

Let the national government be entrusted with the defense of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations; the State governments with the civil rights, law, police, and administration of what concerns the State generally; the counties with the local concerns of the counties, and each ward direct the interests within itself.

It is by dividing and subdividing these republics from the great national one down through all its subordinations, until it ends in the administration of every man’s farm by himself; by placing under every one what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best.

What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body.”